Passport Bottleneck Grows

Not only does everyone want a passport. Everyone wants it now. And that's just not working out.

As USA Today reports, standard passport applications are taking up to 12 weeks to process - and people are complaining about longer waits that have forced them to cancel vacations. Even expedited applications, which cost and extra $60, are taking two to three weeks.

The trouble seems to be that half the applications are now for expedited service and, as the 12-items-or-less checkouts at the supermarket prove, you can't expedite everybody.

So if you need your first passport, or your passport is set to expire in the next six months, you need to get on this right away. (Some countries will deny you entry if there's less than six months left on your passport.) Here's how.

And once you get that passport, be careful with it. If you lose it, or it's stolen, you'll have to go through the same process and pay all those fees over again. My husband and I paid more than $300 for expedited replacements of our passports after they were stolen in Montreal.

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1 Comments

From my personal experience, add at least two weeks to the government's "estimate" of time. Either that or be prepared to go in person to get one, no matter how far you live from their fifteen agency locations.